Dalai Lama talks tough on Tibet’s uprising day

Dharamsala, March 10 (IANS) Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, on the 49th anniversary of Tibet’s uprising against Chinese rule Monday, said he would continue to criticise China until a mutual solution was reached on the Tibetan issue. “The Chinese government severely criticises me when I raise questions about the welfare of the Tibetan people before the international community. Until we reach a mutually beneficial solution, I have a historical and moral responsibility to continue to speak out freely on their behalf,” the Nobel laureate said.

“Due to the actions of the Chinese government, the natural environment has been severely damaged in Tibet. Due to its policy of population transfer, the non-Tibetan population has increased many times, reducing native Tibetans to an insignificant minority in their own country,” the Dalai Lama pointed out.

“The language, customs and traditions of Tibet, which reflect the true nature and identity of the Tibetan people, are gradually fading away,” he lamented.

He said there had been six rounds of talks with Chinese officials since 2002 but there has been no progress on the fundamental issue of Tibet.

India is home to some 100,000 Tibetans, many of whom fled their homeland along with the Dalai Lama in 1959 after an abortive uprising against Chinese rule. The Dalai Lama, head of six million Tibetans, has a government-in-exile based in the hill town of Dharamsala, in Himachal Pradesh.

“The areas inhabited by the Tibetan people are called autonomous region, autonomous prefectures and autonomous counties … they are autonomous in name only; they actually have no real autonomy. Instead, they are governed by people who are oblivious of the regional situation, and driven by what Mao Zedong called Han chauvinism,” he alleged.

“I pay my tribute to those brave men and women of Tibet who have endured hardships and sacrificed their lives for the cause of Tibet,” the leader added.